Badigui
|Reported=1955 |Researchers=• Lucien Blancou • Bernard Heuvelmans }}The badigui or ngakoula-ngou (Banda: "water devil") was a long-necked cryptid reported from the 's Brouchouchou and Gounda Rivers, and possibly also from . It has sometimes been lumped together with the mokele-mbembe. Description According to Lucien Blancou's informants, the badigui is a smooth and hairless "gigantic snake," between 3' and 5' wide according to its track, with a flat snake-like head a little larger than that of a python, a neck much longer than that of a giraffe and as thick as a man's thigh. Its skin is said to have markings like those of a snake, with a paler underside. The ngakoula-ngou, considered a regional name for the badigui, is described simply as an enormous snake which leaves truck-sized tracks. It is reputed to be dangerous and, like a large number of Central African cryptids, is said to kill but not eat hippopotamuses. In the case of the badigui, it kills them by strangling them to death, as their bodies are found without injuries. It feeds on the branches of trees, lifting up its head without leaving the water. No torso has ever been reported. Sightings circa 1890 In 1934, an old Baya man named Moussa told Lucien Blancou that he had encountered a badigui when he was about fourteen years old, before the Europeans arrived - Blancou estimated this was about 1890. Moussa was laying fish traps with his father in the Kibi Stream during at about 1:00PM during the middle of the rainy season, when he saw a badigui browsing on the leaves of a roro tree. 1928 A badigui was said to have crushed a field of manioc belonging to the Linda Banda chief in 1928, leaving behind "tracks" between 3' and 5' wide. At around the same time, "the same beast" killed a hippopotamus in the Brouchouchou River, near Chief Mapouka's village. The villagers ate the dead hippopotamus. circa 1930 In 1945, Blancou's gunbearer Mitikata claimed to have seen the tracks of the ngakoula-ngou about fifteen years previous. Theories :See Mokele-mbembe#Theories and Nguma-monene#Theories. Although the badigui has never been described as having a body, Bernard Heuvelmans suggests that it likely does have a bulky torso beneath the water, as real snake would not be able to lift its head so far out of the water unless it were sitting coiled up on the bottom. Heuvelmans also notes that browsing on leaves would be a very unusual dietary choice for a snake, and Roy P. Mackal points out that "not a single known snake is herbivorous". Similar cryptids The badigui is frequently equated with or compared to the mokele-mbembe, which is reported from the and , to the south-west of the badigui's alleged range. Heuvelmans writes that "it may well be identical with the mokele-mbembe, since they both have a snake's head, a long neck, and smooth skin ... they both eat leaves, and though they attack and kill anything which annoys them ... they do not eat them. They also live in neighbouring areas, the Ubangi-Shari and the Cameroons, both watered by the tributaries of the Ubangi". The badigui also leaves a similar trail to the isiququmadevu, another long-necked reptile. Mackal, on the other hand, connects the badigui with the nguma-monene and lau, which he believed may be some sort of giant monitor lizard. Further reading *Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955) On the Track of Unknown Animals, Routledge, ISBN 978-1138977525 *Heuvelmans, Bernard (1978) Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique, Plon, ISBN 978-2259003872 Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:Africa Category:Central African Republic Category:Equatorial Guinea Category:Long-necked reptiles Category:River monsters Category:River & lake monsters of the Chari system Category:No recent sightings Category:1890 Category:1928 Category:1930